Chapter 28
Nyssa
“Bored now,” I mutter as my face gets even wetter with this infernal fog.
Where did it even come from? I wipe the moisture from my eyes.
It sticks to my lashes. I hate this place.
I hate the damp. I hate the silence. I want out.
I want to go back to my cottage, eat more toast, and pretend I’m not wearing a crown made of snakes and bad omens.
I am all alone, and while that was the point in storming away from the gods, and in particular, Dreven, now I feel lost. All hope is gone that I will ever get out of here, that I will ever see anyone again.
I will die here of old age, still wandering around in the fog.
Okay, so it won’t be old age that gets me.
Dehydration will kick in after a few days.
Unless you can hydrate yourself with fog… I’m fucked.
“Grrr!” I growl and then pause as I feel the sense of despair lift, and hope kicks me in the arse again. “Right, realm. If I am your so-called ruler, let me out!”
“Don’t think it works that way,” a seductive voice purrs at me out of the mist.
“Lust,” I snap as the sexy goddess with her long red waves of hair and curves to die for swims into view. “What do you want?”
She runs a hand down her silk dress, smoothing fabric that doesn’t need smoothing. “I want to know why the Chaos god looks at you like you are the only thing that matters.”
“Because I’m terrifying,” I say flatly. “And because I haven’t tried to sleep with him in the last five minutes.”
She pouts. It’s a practised expression. “He likes the chase. I can respect that. But this fog? It’s damp, and it is ruining my hair.”
“I don’t care,” I snap. “If you know the way out, point. If not, move.”
“You made the maze, darling. You have to unmake it. Or are you too afraid to drop the walls?”
I grip my blade. “I’m not afraid. I’m annoyed. There is a difference.”
“Is there?” She tilts her head, red hair cascading over her shoulder. “You ran away because the Shadow god told you the truth. You rule this place. You just refuse to take the position.”
“It isn’t a position,” I mutter. “It is a cage.”
“Everything holds you if you struggle against it,” she says, offering a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “But if you stop fighting, maybe the fog lifts.”
I hate that she makes sense. I hate it even more that a goddess who probably thinks calculus is a type of foot infection is lecturing me on emotional regulation.
I close my eyes. I force my shoulders to drop.
I stop trying to find the exit. I stop trying to run from the heavy, cold responsibility Dreven keeps trying to hand me.
I just stand there.
Nothing happens.
“Well, that was a success. You got a name?”
Lust smiles. “Aurora.”
“Well, Aurora. My name is Nyssa, and we need to work together to get the fuck out of this fog.”
“I can’t help you with that. This is your doing.”
“Shut the fuck up and move. Standing here isn’t doing anything.”
She shrugs and falls into step beside me as I walk to the left. It feels warmer there for some reason. Or rather, less cold than the patch we are walking away from. All good in my book.
“How did you kill her?” Aurora asks suddenly.
“Who?”
“Aethel.”
“I stabbed her in the face.”
“Ouch. How did she break the veil?”
I shrug. “Some mad guy opened it and let her out. She killed him.”
“Sounds like Aethel.”
“No one liked her,” I state.
“Understatement.”
“Why?”
“She was a tyrant. Being trapped here with her, with nowhere to go for several hundred years, was not fun.”
“Why didn’t someone try to kill her?”
“Gods can’t kill gods.”
That tracks, at least. “Did you know the Devourer is here? Or a fragment of it trapped in a box?”
Aurora’s smile goes brittle. “Fragment is not enough.”
“I’m aware.” I stop, plant my feet, and let my jaw unclench. Running in circles is a waste of breath. I’m done indulging this fog.
“Fine,” I say to the grey. “You belong to me. Obey.”
Nothing dramatic happens. No trumpets. No choir. Just a narrow easing in the pressure behind my eyes, like a stubborn knot loosening. The fog hums, waiting.
“Rules,” I tell it, because Dreven was right and I hate that he was right. “You will do two things. Show me the nearest exit, and hold the box.”
The mist ripples. A seam opens to my right, as thin and precise as a blade mark. Air moves—barely—but it’s movement, and that’s enough. Warmth licks the back of my neck; not heat, attention. The realm heard me.
Aurora arches a brow. “Look at you. Becoming interesting.”
“Keep up,” I say, and step into the seam before it changes its mind.
The fog pulls back like I’ve yanked a tablecloth. Obsidian resolves under my boots, shot with veins of bright gold that weren’t there before. A vein runs ahead, a guidance line glowing faintly as if it’s embarrassed to help. I follow it. Aurora glides next to me in silence for a change.
“There,” I say after a few minutes. “The fissure.”
She nods as I aim for it. She hangs back.
I turn to her. “You are staying?”
“For now. I feel leaving would be a mistake.”
There is no accusation in her tone, but I still feel like a fucking bitch for walking out of here and leaving everyone behind. But what else can I do?
“I don’t know how to use this power to defeat anything,” I say uncertainly.
Aurora stares at me for a moment, assessing my sincerity before she speaks. “No one new does, dear. You think we are created with the knowledge of how our powers work?”
“No,” I admit, huffing out a breath. “I’m winging it. Constantly. It’s exhausting.”
Aurora’s mouth curves. “Welcome to divinity.”
“That’s depressing.”
“Despair is near,” she agrees with a nod.
“Great. Well, despair can fuck off. I’ve got a job to do a slayer job to slay things.”
“What did I ever do to you?” an indignant voice comes through the fog.
Dreven, followed by the fish woman, and some guy who looks like he lost his best friend, emerge from the fog.
“Excuse me,” I say, ignoring Dreven and glaring at the other god.
“He’s the god of Despair,” Aurora says. “He thought you meant him.”
“Then maybe stop radiating doom like it’s your hobby,” I tell Despair. “No offence.”
He shrugs. “None taken.”
Dreven steps in front of me. He looks furious and controlled at the same time. “You walled me out.”
“I didn’t even know it was me,” I say carefully. “So it wasn’t intentional.”
He narrows his eyes but doesn’t start lecturing me. Good thing too, or I’d have to re-fog this place up, and I’m not even sure how.
“Where are Dastian and Voren?” I ask when he says nothing.
“No idea.”
“Well, we need to find them. If we only have part of the Devourer in that box, we need to find the rest.”
The ground rumbles underfoot, and everyone freezes.
“What was that?” I ask as Dastian and Voren join us from the opposite end of the fog, having also picked up some strays along the way. I glare at Tabitha.
“An earthquake,” Dastian says.
“No shit. What does it signify?”
“Deep shit,” Fire god says, also joining the party.
“That doesn’t surprise me. Not even a little bit,” I say with a sigh, and wonder where my life went wrong.
Oh, yeah. The day some madman opened the sealed Pantheon realm, and I killed its ruler.
Fun times.